Homely Scientist

Okay, you know one of my favourite topics is global warming.  And you know that I am also pretty well versed in the feedback loops that work like accelerating spirals.
New data I read about on the Quirks and Quarks blog just makes chills run down my spine.  The thing about feedback loops is that once you hit the tipping point, they become self-sustaining and, shall we say, out of control.  Meaning, once they get going the resulting changes come very rapidly.  Is there disagreement among scientists about this?  Sure.  But the disagreement often isn’t the if or why or what, …read more

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 I saw on UNEASYsilence yesterday a post on making water “magnetic”.  Water, of course, isn’t magnetic because it doesn’t have any magnetic materials in it.  The post linked to a couple folks who claimed to be able to infuse enough iron into the water using lemon or lime juice and spinach leaves (spinach is has a lot of iron).  There was even a YouTube video about it (which is no longer available).  Hey I was interested in this.  I though, hmm I could try this.  Sounds fun.  Last night I went back to the post to look at the video …read more

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Ever wonder why peppers are hot? Generally if a plant grows showy, fragrant fruits the idea is for the fruit to be eaten and the seeds pooped out (spread more plants).  But peppers, hmm they can be rather spicy (mmm), so what gives?  Well, it turns out that, as well know, mammals (except for humans) really, really don’t like the hot of peppers.  But, plants don’t evolve something for nothing so who is supposed to eat them?  Birds.
Yep, Birds.  Birds don’t have the receptors for react to capsaicin (what makes peppers hot).  So they just chow down and spread the …read more

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Another month and another theme day for SciHealth.  Our theme is Sun. June, summer, fun, sun.  Ouch!  Sunburns!
Although it’s pouring rain here right now (not much of a chance of a sunburn today), I thought I’d explain how sunblock works.
I found a decent explanation at the Library of Congress and it’s pretty simple.  Sunblock contains things that deflect or prevent absorption of UV A (the ones that make vitamin D) and UV B (the burning rays)  by our skin.  Commonly zinc oxide is one of the main ingredients.  Now, there is some question about the over use of sunscreen and …read more

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I read on the CBC website this week that a new potential antibiotic, one that might be effective against antibiotic resistant "superbugs", was identified when studying South African soil bacteria.

Platensimycin, the newly discovered antibiotic, also has a new mode of action, Wang’s team says in a study published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
It blocks enzymes that bacteria use to make fatty acids – the building blocks of cell membranes and bacterial surfaces.Source CBC

This is great news.  An antibiotic that works in a new and novel way hasn’t been discovered for years.  This particular compound holds promise to hit some pretty nasty bugs …read more

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So Scott asked about sparks coming from grapes in the microwave in my latest questions answered post.  Scott directed me to this post that explains what’s going on … in detail, lots of detail.  It also seems that folks in San Diego were in this too.
So, what’s going on?  Amazingly the sphereoid shape of grapes makes an awesome dipole antenna .. the grape starts increasing the signal.  Now, two grapes, which was the question, oooh boy then the fun begins!  The two grape-tennas start interacting with each other and as super heated steam (grape juice) starts coming from the grapes,   …read more

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Every wonder why swimmers shave off all their body hair?  No, it’s not to look extra sexy in their suits (though … no I’m not going to go there).  It’s all about laminar flow.  While runners, bikers, and other athletes have to consider wind resistance, swimmers have to have a totally different side of physics to consider.  Scott Goldblatt (an Olympic gold medalist and b5 blogger)  talks about the new developments in swimsuits in competitive swimming over on Timed Finals.  All the developments, and shaving, all do one thing … make bodies as smooth as possible so water not only …read more

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While apparently posts about chocolate are rather popular, I’d like to tackle some more of your questions (the gum in your stomach for 7 years myth is still outstanding …).  So, come on people!  I’ve got a stack of my textbooks waiting to be poured over.
Okay how about this … let’s pick a topic.  Food.  Ask me your food science questions.  Like, what’s with high-altitude cooking instructions?  Or … how does kneading make bread better.
You can do it, I know you can.
Tags: food science, science education, chocolate science

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Don’t know if Mark W. and I were the inspiration for this theme day, but across this entire channel we’re talking about quitting smoking today.  My part?  Well I’m in the process of quitting smoking right now.  I have tried a few times before doing the cold-turkey route with no success.  This time, I’m trying the patch.  Which brings me to the topic of this post … How does the patch work?
First let’s understand the problem.  Smoking makes you addicted to nicotine.  You body craves it when you don’t get it, then makes you really unpleasant as you start to …read more

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Okay, chocolate might only be tasty and not pump us full of feel good chemicals, but did you know that you can use chocolate chips and your microwave to measure the speed of light? Yeah no kidding.
I first found this on Curious Cat some time ago and have been meaning to write it up for a while. Okay the instructions are on Superpositioned and it basically works like this. Take a plate of chocolate chips, nuke them for a few seconds and measure the distance between melted spots.
This works because the distance between the edge of the …read more

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